Just hand over that entire carton of egg nog, because the OgreCave crew is here with its Christmas Gift Guide 2006. Over the next few days, we'll complete our sixth annual guide to all things gamers want to sink their teeth into. Starting things off is our first list, 12 Stocking Stuffer Games - our twelve picks for the holidays if you have $20 or less to spend. But in case you have a larger budget (or Grandma's picking up the tab this year), we'll have more gift lists in the days ahead, so check back here at the Cave to see what you and your friends should grab before 2006 is gone.

We'll have much more on the holiday gift front for you shortly with our Christmas Gift Guide [now available! - ed.], but in the meantime, my wife came across this gem - the Furreal Friends Butterscotch Interactive Plush Pony, a 2.5 foot tall animatronic pony toy meant to be the gift little girls everywhere have always wanted. While Amazon.com's $650 listing is amusing (!), it's nothing compared to the Product Features list, which ends with a considerate-yet-hilarious warning: "Pony comes unassembled in box with head detatched. [...] You may wish to not open the box around your children if they may be frightened by a box with a decapitated horse inside." Wise words indeed.

It's the holidays again, and aiding and abetting our forthcoming Gift Guides is this episode of the report. Featured at the top, though, is lengthy incredulity at the fact that the WoW CCG is okay. Also, D&D Worldwide Game Day and how it could work better. Join us!

The WoW news leads off this show, followed by another trip into the bad neighborhood that is the RPG PDF market, and some final thoughts about Gen Con SoCal before we charge into some thorough and fascinating RPG play reports from the last Endgame MiniCon. Check it.

Yep, Scrye Magazine bought Gaming Report. An FAQ, press release (repeated below), and farewell message from founder Dan Sivils (also repeated below) tell the full story. It remains to be seen whether this will have any significant effect on either party.

"We are a Sri Lankan miniature painting service that offers high quality, traditional miniature painting (no cheap speed painting tricks!) at the lowest rates on Earth [...] Quality the average Western painter charges as much as $9-$12 to paint, we do for only $3."

11:30 AM: Allan Sugarbaker says...What do you get a Great Old One for its anniversary?

Today marks the 25th anniversary of Call of Cthulhu, and instead of locking the doors, barring the windows, and hiding under the bed, our friends at Yog-Sothoth are celebrating. Check by the Yog Radio page for a special podcast episode to commemorate the event, featuring CoC designer Sandy Petersen and other Chaosium luminaries. The YS crew has also invited Cthulhu fans to send voice mail with their CoC anecdotes, so summon up what little sanity the Elder Gods have let you keep, and contribute what you can.

Yes, folks: White Wolf is merging with CCP, the Iceland-based publishers of the "space MMO" the world knows as EVE Online (who made a small splash at Gen Con this year with a self-licensed CCG). That sound you hear underneath the wailing and tooth-gnashing of the Camarilla people may indeed be the nineties calling to ask for their synergy back. But maybe not; things like this haven't always spelled certain disaster in the recent past, and while CCP may look like a bit of an also-ran, the truth is that EVE Online has hung on for a good long time, affording them luxuries like a doomed CCG. So hey. I am not pessimistic yet, but let's just hope that as much wisdom is allowed to flow from WW to CCP as the other way around. Press release beneath the cut.

05:04 PM: Mike Sugarbaker says...What happens when people stop being polite and start making up Magic cards

For all the fun of a reality show with more Magic card design geekery and fewer hair-pulling catfights (or maybe I just haven't found that forum yet), hit up the Great Designer Search. Fifteen would-be designers compete in a series of absurd challenges for an internship with WotC R&D. I barely understand the game anymore and I'm still enjoying reading it. Somebody design an artifact called Immunity Idol!

A reader pointed out that Games Workshop has decided to shut down its internet forums as of November 15. This is considered by many gamers, both GW fans and detractors alike, to be a bad move, something which GW is quite good at making these days. At least this time it's not much of a loss really, as the forums were moderated with an iron power glove.